Decolonial Thinking

Decolonial Thinking delves into the intricate web of colonial practices, terms, and ideas that have woven themselves into people's lives. It seeks to understand how the tendrils of coloniality have insidiously attached themselves to the very fabric of self-understanding. From the mundane to the profound, this exploration sheds light on our relationship with all that constitutes life.

Editors María Lugones and Patrick M. Crowley have meticulously curated 11 unique articles by interdisciplinary theorists. These thought-provoking pieces compellingly address questions surrounding colonial legacies. Organized into five sections, the book navigates themes ranging from sexualities and multiple worlds to differential topographies. It also examines the relation between women-of-color politics and decoloniality, exploring resistance, coalition building, and pluriversality.

As decolonial theory gains global recognition, it has emerged as a critical lens through which we view capitalism, racism, gender discrimination, violence, and Eurocentrism. Decolonial Thinking boldly rejects oppressive rationalities, prompting fresh strategies for shared meanings. These strategies diverge radically from dominant disciplinary and academic categories of knowledge, inviting us to reimagine our understanding of the world.

María Lugones (1944–2020) was a leading decolonial feminist philosopher, a popular educator at the Escuela Popular Norteña, and Professor of Comparative Literature at Binghamton University. She coedited (with Yuderkys Espinosa-Miñoso and Nelson Maldonado-Torres) Decolonial Feminism in Abya Yala: Caribbean, Meso, and South American Contributions and Challenges and authored dozens of philosophical essays, some of which are collected in Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes: Theorizing Coalition Against Multiple Oppressions and The María Lugones Reader.
Patrick M. Crowley is a Lecturer in English at Appalachian State University. His research examines decolonial aesthetics in the work of Caribbean and Afro-diasporic artists-theorists-practitioners.